IDEA Lab Personnel

Dr. Lumpp is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Kentucky. He received the BSEE and MSEE degrees from the School of Electrical Engineering at Purdue University in 1988 and 1989 respectively, and the PhD from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Iowa in 1993. He joined the faculty at the University of Kentucky in 1993. He is a Member of IEEE, AIAA, ACM, and SWE and the Center for Advanced Networking and the Advanced Science and Technology Commercialization Center at the University of Kentucky. He has worked as a visiting scientist or intern at AT&T Bell Labs, Rockwell International, Northrop Defense Systems Division, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. His research interests include distributed embedded systems, safety critical systems, and high-performance distributed computing.

Jason is a graduate research assistant pursuing a MS in Electrical Engineering at the University of Kentucky. He joined the IDEA lab in Spring of 2008 and has since led the hardware design and build on several lab projects. His research interests include embedded systems hardware and software.

More Information: Personal
Email: jason.r.bratcher@gmail.com
Call Sign: KJ4HVM
Calendar: Here

Twyman is a graduate student in Mechanical Engineering, he joined Kentucky Space in May 2008 in a very surprising fashion. He was informed of his employment while in Ecuador and told to be at work in three days. Since then he has worked on the design and tracking of balloon-1 , environmental testing of KySat-1, mechanical design for the Garvey and Improved Terrier Malimute test flights, and has been very involved in setting the NanoRacks standards along with the design and facbrication of the hardware that will interface with the CubeLabs in the International Space Station. Twyman's research interest include vibration/acoustic testing and design along with propulsion systems. His interest from the vibration/acoustic side of engineering comes from his three years of experience as an intern at Belcan engineering company in Lexington Kentucky dealing with the design and analysis of Sikorksy helicopters such as the UH-60 Blackhawk, S-70B Seahawk, and CH-53Super Stallion lines. Finally, Twyman is very excited with the opportunities Kentucky Space has in the future.

Daniel is a student at the University of Kentucky and is currently working towards a MS in Electrical Engineering. Daniel joined the IDEA lab in the fall of 2007.

Zach joined the Space Systems Lab in July 2009 as a graduate research assistant. He is currently pursuing his MS degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Kentucky. Prior to joining the team, Zach worked in the industry as an Electrical Engineer at Mason & Hanger, an architectural and engineering firm. He designed the electrical systems in military bases and buildings all across the US. In his undergraduate career at the University of Kentucky, Zach focused on Embedded Systems, led the UK Solar car team for 2 years, and served as the webmaster and parts store manager for IEEE.

Samir is a graduate student pursuing a PhD degree Electrical Engineering. He joined the Space Systems Lab in 2007, and took part in several missions and research projects since then with Kentucky Space. His research efforts have been in Embedded Systems Design and Signal Processing, and is now focused on Satellite Attitude Dynamics and Estimation Filters.

Meetra is a second year graduate research assistant pursuing her MS in Electrical Engineering. She joined Kentucky Space in Spring 2009 and is working on hardware design and fabrication.

Anthony is a senior in the Mechanical Engineering who began working for Kentucky Space during the summer of 2008. His other work experience includes a student engineering position at the Kentucky Transportation Center and a year spent as a dormitory resident adviser. With Kentucky Space, he has worked on CAD modeling of several payloads (Balloon-1, GSC P12 IMU, SOCEM), aerostabilisation research, SSL purchasing tasks, server management, GUI development for the ADAMASat mission, hardware design for SOCEM, and scheduling/management for SOCEM.

Jason is a Computer/Electrical Engineering sophomore and started with Kentucky Space in May 2009. His research interests include spacecraft design and hardware.

Shadab is pursuing his Master's degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Kentucky. He joined the IDEA group in Fall 2005. He recently held an internship at Intel Corporation, Hillsboro, where he worked on schematic validation for a new processor core. His current research interests include real-time and embedded systems, reconfigurable computing and computer architecture (logic design and testing). He expects to graduate by Summer 2007.

Tim received his Masters degree in Electrical Engineering from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Kentucky in the Spring of 2007. He was the Business Manager on Big Blue 3 and is now focusing on Embedded Systems in related projects. He is a member of Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu, IEEE and AIAA. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Kentucky in May 2005. As of his departure from the lab, Tim worked for the Eastman Chemical Company in Kingsport, TN.

Yehya is a student at the University of Kentucky and is currently pursuing a BS in Electrical Engineering along with two minors: Mathematics and Computer Science. He will graduate in Spring 2008 and begin pursuing a Masters Degree in the same field. Yehya joined the IDEA lab in Spring 2007, also he is an IEEE member. His research interests include embedded systems, PCB design, analog control, and robotics.

Darren was a Masters student in Electrical Engineering at the University of Kentucky. While pursuing his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, Darren was involved in several organizations such as the honor societies Tau Beta Pi and Upsilon Phi Epsilon as well as the professional organization IEEE. He completed both Bachelor Degrees in the Fall of 2005 from the University of Kentucky. His work was focused in embedded systems with an emphasis in the applied use of embedded operating systems in fault tolerant reconfigurable computing. Darren now resides in Las Vegas, Nevada where he works under Casey Harr in the the robotics laboratory at Bigelow Aerospace.

Garrett is currently pursuing a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Kentucky. He completed the requirements for his Master of Science in Biosystems Engineering at UK in January of 2006, and although he has been an active member of the IDEA Lab since his leadership in the BIG BLUE 2 project during the spring of 2004, he made the association official at this time. Prior to attending UK he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Engineering from Texas A&M University in 2003. Garrett has held internships with Case Corporation, New Holland Inc, and Norges Teknisk-Naturvitenskapelige Universitet (Norwegian University of Science and Technology). The more substantial embedded computing systems that he has worked on include a low-pressure plant growth research control system, a dynamic traction control system for off road vehicles, and an optical system for making non-contact measurements of fluid constituents. Garrett is also a licensed amateur radio operator. His current research focus is in design, dynamic reconfiguration, and reliability management of embedded system architectures. In April of 2006 Garrett was selected to lead a multi-disciplinary and multiple-institution team in the design and construction of Kentucky's first satellite, KySat.

Tom is a student at the University of Kentucky and is currently working towards a BS in Computer Engineering and a BS in Computer Science. Tom joined the IDEA lab in the fall of 2006.

Tyler is a student at the University of Kentucky and is currently working towards a MS in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Computer Science. He graduated in the Spring of 2007. He has held co-op rotations at GE Consumer and Industrial. Tyler is currently working on the KySat Project. Tyler joined the IDEA lab in the Fall of 2006. His research interests include embedded systems hardware and software.

Bill is an undergraduate student at the University of Kentucky, currently majoring in Electrical Engineering & Computer Engineering. Bill joined the IDEA lab in the Fall of '06 as the Assistant Business Manager.

Adam was a Masters student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Kentucky from 2004 to 2006. His research area was embedded controls with a particular focus on aerospace applications. He joined the IDEA Lab as a research assistant in August 2004. Prior to that, he worked as a team leader and flight data analyst on BIG BLUE II and earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Kentucky in 2004. His thesis work centered on the development of a low cost inertial measurement unit for small UAVs. Adam graduated in May, 2006 and now works in Teterboro, New Jersey for Honeywell Aerospace in the Electronic Protection Products (HEPP) division of the Guidance and Navigation Center of Excellence (G&N CoE).

Casey graduated in December 2005 with a Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering. His graduate research focused on the design of a gait acquisition and analysis system to be used in conjunction with previously designed neurotrauma devices for the University of Kentucky Medical Center. He has worked as a design consultant for each phase of the BIG BLUE UAV project and as the lead system designer for the medical research spin-off company Precision Systems and Instrumentation, LLC. His true passion is autonomous robotics. He is a member of IEEE and ACM. He also received is Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Kentucky in 2003. Casey now resides in Las Vegas, Nevada where he oversees the robotics laboratory at Bigelow Aerospace.

Samuel is pursuing a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering at the University of Kentucky. He completed his undergraduate career at the University of Kentucky in Spring 2006, with Bachelor's degrees in Computer Science and Computer Engineering. Samuel joined the IDEA lab in Fall 2006. His research consists of embedded systems programming and development with a focus in fault-tolerance. He is currently the lead software architect for the KYSAT project. He assisted with the KYSAT Space Express mission as the payload hardware lead and as ground station software support.

David is pursuing a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering at the University of Kentucky. He was the Avionics and Control team leader on BIG BLUE I and worked as research assistant on BIG BLUE II. His research interests are in Embedded Systems. He is a member of IEEE and AIAA. He received is Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Kentucky in 2003.

Siva completed his Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from UK in December 2005. He joined IDEA lab in the FALL semester 2005 and worked on Controller Area Networks (CAN) and embedded networks. He had focused his research on Fault Tolerant systems, Embedded Networks and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. Currently working as Platform Software Engineer in Intel,Oregon.

Dale is a student at the University of Kentucky and is currently working towards a MS in Electrical Engineering. He graduated in the fall of 2006 and began pursuing a Masters Degree in the same subject. Dale joined the IDEA lab in the spring of 2006 where he constructed and modified UAV airframes. He holds an amateur radio operator’s license and his research interests include long range RF communication, embedded systems, and digital signal processing.

Rama is a Graduate Student in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Kentucky. He has been working with IDEA lab since Fall 2006. He did his Bachelor of Technology in Electronics & Communication Engineering from Sri Venkateshwara University, India. Prior to joining University of Kentucky, he worked for two years at the TRW Automotive offshore development center, CMC Ltd, India, as an Embedded Software Engineer. His research interests include Real time Embedded systems, fault tolerant computing, Distributed Embedded Networks.

Phil is currently pursuing a Bachelors Degree in Computer Engineering at the University of Kentucky. He is a new member to the IDEA lab, just started in the Spring semester of 2006, and has taken over position of business manager. He is interested in International Engineering issues, embedded systems, robotics, and presently studying Japanese.

Dr. Rawashdeh was a Lecturer in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Kentucky. He received his BS, MS, and PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Kentucky in 2000, 2003, 2005 respectively. He absolved internships at Daimler Benz AG and at SIEMENS AG and became a member of the IDEA Lab in March of 2000. He is a member of IEEE, ACM, AIAA, and ARRL. His research interests include embedded systems design, reconfigurable computing, and fault-tolerance. In 2007, Dr. Rawashdeh joined the Department Electrical and Computer Engineering at Oakland University in Rochester, MI as an Assistant Professor.

Matt is a student at the University of Kentucky and is currently working towards a BS in Electrical Engineering. Matt joined the IDEA lab in the fall of 2006. His research interests include embedded systems and controls.

Subash is a research assistant and a Masters student in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Kentucky. His research interests include embedded system and development, reconfigurable computing and fault tolerant computing. He is a member of IEEE and AIAA and received his Bachelor of Engineering Degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Anna University India in 2005.

Sarah was a sophomore pursuing a Bachelor of Science in computer science at the University of Kentucky when she joined the IDEA group as web developer in May 2006. She also worked at the Site Lab in the Hardymon Building on the UK campus. In Fall 2006, she started her second rotation as a co-op at Lexmark. Her interests include Linux, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, and web design.

Van finished bachelors degrees in electrical engineering and physics at the University of Kentucky in May 2006. He held internship positions at both the German Aerospace Center’s Institute for Construction and Design in Stuttgart, Germany and at the University of Kentucky’s Center for Visualization and Virtual Environments. He joined the IDEA Lab as business and account manager in January of 2006. His research interests included non-destructive testing and sensory systems, quantum information and computation, blind source separation, baysean modeling, and international issues in engineering. Van is currently a nomad and calls Sapporo, Japan his home base.